At long last we have finally acquiesced to the requests from our subscribers and twitter friends to write, “at least the basics of what you do for press release optimization“, so here it goes.

How to Optimize a Press Release

by Joe Perez CEO, Zealous Marketing

  • Define your strategy. The first thing you need to ask your self is what’s the purpose of this press release? Is it for links to my website and drive traffic, hoping consumers read it and visitors want to find out more about it, or is it intended to hopefully generate media buzz and spark additional media coverage - with a story the world needs to know. If it is the latter and you are hoping to get the media to follow it and report on your story, then you’ll have to wait just a bit for us to get that “Value-Packed Article Set” on the blog. In this post we’ll be exploring the first one - how to get links to your website and generate pure search traffic from your optimized press release.

 

  • Define your Keywords. The first thing is understanding what your keywords are and being realistic. By realistic, I mean you won’t be able to target keywords like “Cosmetics” if you have a press release on “Designer Fashions for Fall”.  For the example’s sake, your keywords with a headline like that should be “fall fashions” and “fall designer fashions” - but we’ll get to that in a moment. Read, then re-read your press release so you familiarize yourself with the “tone” of the release. Also take note of what appear to be the keywords. Heck, these may not even be the words you want to target at all! That brings us to the next step in stride.

 

  • Structure your press release to include your targeted keywords. For our example we’ll use a sample of the press release optimization we did for Dizzler. If you find your keyword use is lacking, insert them into the story so as not to make it sound corny or like you were TRYING to insert them. For Dizzler, 1 of the 3 kewords we optimized for was “Free Music” -  of which is EXTREMELY competitive (against the likes of Rhapsody, Aol Music etc..). None-the-less, here is the press release before optimization: 

     Press Release Before...

    So what we see here is the lack of “free music” anywhere in the first part of the press release. Now this is the VERY important area of your press release.  You’ll want to have one keyword, if not the whole keyword set, in the headline and also in the summary (the “mini headline”).  You also want to include the keyword at least 3-5 times in the press release body itself. Don’t over do it! The rule of thumb here is to have one keyword set text linked per hundred words. Getting to text links… 

  • Use Anchor Text Links for your Keywords. Now that you have the keywords ready to insert and you’ve determined it won’t distort the “flow of the storyline”, insert the keywords and anchor link them like this..(never anchor or text link the keyword in the headline)

Press Release Optimization After

To insert anchor text is the same thing as hyperlinking. Simply highlight the word (like you would to delete it or format it) and right click the mouse and select hyperlink. Enter your website address or the web page on your website you would like the traffic to go to. For “white hat” sake, PLEASE make sure the website you are linking to is more than relevant for that keyword and not spam. An advanced technique here, and feel free to contact Zealous Marketing directly to expound on this, is to make sure your keyword is in your title tags for your website for OPTIMUM results.

  • Choose your Distribution and Get It Out! Zealous Marketing recommends PR Web for your distribution (we distribute through PR Web at various levels, depending on our objectives). Also, there are MANY free press release distribution websites and we recommend to use all of them.  Free is free! As a side note, if you are a start-up, we suggest that you ONLY launch your press release on paid channels for your first release. This is a matter of reputation management and an IN-DEPTH discussion and strategy to ensure your brand’s credibility online ( if you would like more info on reputation management please contact us). The first information that you allow to enter cyber-space regarding your company is CRITICAL! A potential client, customer, investor or partner will definitely not feel comfortable in doing business with a company who’s only media is on a FREE website. I mean, would you invest over a thousand dollars with anyone who’s only mentions online are from free websites where anyone can, in effect, post anything they want? OK, getting back on track, if your company is etablished feel free to use the free sites :)  It will take you HOURS to find, register and submit your press releases to each. Lucky for us, we have a staff that handles that but for the small business owner, we definitely recommend Press Release Point.

    • These are the VERY BASICS of press release optimization. Perhaps, if time permits between projects, I’ll post the next level of press release optimization that includes how you can time your press release to coincide with the newsletters from various top level corporations that include RSS feeds in their newsletters. This now opens your press release to the entire audience and database of the top level corporations that have hundreds of thousands of newsletters going out! Or, if you just can’t wait for that post and would like a PR consultation, please contact us by clicking here, Contact Zealous Marketing. And as always, please feel free to Register Here and Leave Comments. Your feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated. OR, you can follow the CEO on Twitter. 

    PRESS RELEASE OPTIMIZATION UPDATE:

    I have found an articel to be extremely valuable in your next steps from here. This is a great collection of strategies and, although they can be expounded upon tremendously- individually - this provides a GREAT reference point for key componants in your PR optimization.  Check out the article by clicking here!